Ancient Greek Sanctuary

Samothrace, a small, rocky Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea, has a storied past that belies its diminutive size. One of the most rugged of all the Greek islands, its Mt. Saos rises to 1,611 meters (5,285 feet).

Known best for its Sanctuary of the Great Gods, or Hieron ton Megalon Theon, in Paleopolis, it was once the home of the stunningly beautiful 2.5-meter (8.2-foot) tall marble statue of Nike, created in 190 BC, now known as the “Winged Victory of Samothrace.”

Like so many other of Greece’s ancient treasures, it now is displayed in a European museum (in this case, the Louvre in Paris); but it was once part of the Sanctuary, whose remains still grace the island today.  READ MORE...

PragerU

 

That Special Day

 

Son of a Son of a Miliary Man

 I started college in 1966 and dropped out after the first semester in 1968 or 2.5 years out of 4.  My reason was that I was not happy in college and did not want to continue.  Because I dropped out, I was eligible for the draft, so I enlisted in the Navy for two years but only spent 21 months because I received an EARLY OUT to retun to college.

I never supported the Vietnam War but did not run away from my obligation to serve either.  My military expertise was communications.  First I was a radioman then a communications technician which basically amounted to the collection of data that was then analyzed by someone else.

Most of the people in the Navy around me, spent almost all of their free time drinking in bars and chasing females.  While I did my fair share of drinking, I also knew when to quit and saved most of my money.  When we were deployed on a Med Cruise, I used the money I had saved to buy camera and stereo equipment along with leather jackets and some cut crystal wine glasses.  I also went on a lot of historical tours of the various places we visited.

Twenty one months later after requesting an early out to return to college, I was offered $20,000 and a bump from E4 to E6, if I re-enlisted for 6 more years, but refused.

The GI BILL paid for my last two years of college plus two years of grad school...  all because I had served in the military during the Vietnam War.  NO COLLEGE DEBT...

Whether I was sent to Vietnam is none of your business and it is something that only I can deal with, so why share...

I don't like the military.

I don't like military wars.

I don't like political leaders who cannot solve problems without going to war.

Of course, I don't like SOCIALISM either.

Stay Positive

 

Orange Skies Are Our Future

These wildfire smoke episodes are disasters as serious as hurricanes, floods or heat waves, and come with a steep human toll. Whether in the East or in the West, they are just one tragic example of how climate change is coming.

The choking siege of smoke over much of the Eastern U.S. from wildfires in Canada has exposed millions of Americans to dangerous levels of lung-damaging pollution. 

Wednesday was by far the nation’s worst day in recent history for wildfire smoke pollution, with more people exposed to higher levels of soot than any day since 2006, according to a rapid analysis by Stanford University scientists.

That’s hardly a surprise to people from New York to Minnesota who have been suffering under this acrid, life-threatening pall. And it’s the type of in-your-face environmental health crisis that Californians know too well, with authorities urging people to stay inside and filter the air they breathe and canceling outdoor activities, and large numbers of people almost certainly getting sick or dying. 

The second-worst smoke day, after all, was in September 2020, when the haze from an explosion of climate-fueled wildfires up and down the West Coast blotted out the sun, shrouding San Francisco in an apocalyptic orange and contributing to potentially thousands of early deaths.

The otherworldly veil that has hung over some of the nation’s most densely populated areas is the latest illustration of the fact that an overheating planet knows no human-made boundaries, and that as much as we try, no one will be spared the impacts. Everyone, after all, has to breathe.     READ MORE...

Maintaining Control

 

At Another Level

 

First & Second Amendments

These two amendments to the US Constitution have been the source of much debate and controversy, especially the second amendment.  

While I am not a constitutional scholar, it is my opinion that the second amendment was merely a temporary measure until the new government could establish a police force and a military to provide protection to its residents.  Consequently, there is absolutely, no reason for Americans to own firearms unless one is a collector or a hunter.

However, the first amendment is another story altogether.  It addresses religious freedoms as well as freedom of the press (both written and verbal).  

I really don't give a shit about religious freedom especially since I am going to believe a certain way whether the government likes it or not.  I don't need to publicly display my religious beliefs in order for me to believe like I do.  In fact, I believe one's religious beliefs should be private, not public.  It is none of your damn business what I may or may not believe.

Freedom of the press on the other hand, is a different story completely and it should be a big deal to everyone.  If we cannot voice our opinions verbally or on paper or in the media, then we are no longer a democracy.  If we try to censor all those views that disagree with us, then we are no longer a democracy.

You should be allowed to voice your opinion about the government and not be punished for it by the government, by your employer, or by your neighbor.

The first amendment is one of the few things that makes us different from anywhere else in the world.  People who don't have the first amendment are jealous of us as they should be.

Once that freedom is gone, it never comes back...
 

Good Heart

 

Weight Loss Slows Aging

Switching to a diet full of fresh veggies and low in processed foods could do wonders for your brain's biological age, new research shows.

According to the international team of researchers who ran the study, eating a Mediterranean diet rich in vegetables, seafood, and whole grains – or even just following dietary guidelines – appears to slow the signs of accelerated brain aging typically seen in obesity with as little as 1 percent loss in body weight.

Brain scans taken after 18 months showed the participants' brain age appearing almost nine months younger than expected, compared to estimates of their brain's chronological age.

Like the participants in the clinical trial, you might not feel as old as the years you've lived, or perhaps your body feels like it's aging faster than you are – this is the difference between biological and chronological age.

Either way, research shows your body's biological age is much more than a feeling: Signs of biological aging can be found dotted along your DNA, etched onto the ends of your chromosomes, or as this study suggests, in the loosening connections of your brain.

While a growing body of research suggests that biological aging brought on by stressful events could be reversible, this new study shows that improving your diet may be one of the simplest options to improving body condition, irrespective of the years.  READ MORE...

Robots From China

 

Moral Issue With Robots

 

Gaslighting

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that aims to make the victim doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity. It can take many forms, from making outright false statements to twisting the truth, denying reality, and projecting blame and shame.

Gaslighting is often used by individuals struggling to acknowledge and address their own emotional challenges and tend to “cope” by bullying or manipulating others, and displaying narcissistic tendencies to deceive and feel in control of the people they target.

Examples of Gaslighting:

• Denying something happened or insisting that something happened differently than the accused remembers.
• Trivializing your feelings—being told you’re "too sensitive" or "too emotional" when expressing your emotions.

Scenario 1: A wife asks her husband if he has been cheating on her after smelling a hint of perfume on her husband’s shirt following a reported business trip. The husband denies it, claiming to have likely picked up the scent from the woman he was sitting next to on the plane. He hints that she's overreacting, imagining things, and creating drama. He dismisses her concerns and tells her that she has trust issues that need to be addressed. The wife starts to feel guilty and ashamed for doubting her husband's fidelity, even though deep down, she feels something is off.

IF she is right in her assumptions of him being unfaithful, this would be considered gaslighting by the husband.

Scenario 2: An employee was given a task by their manager, but when the task caused serious problems and cost the company money, the manager denied ever telling them to do it. The manager said they were lying and that they “must have dreamed it.” Now, the employee is confused and frustrated as they know their manager asked them to complete this task. They feel they are being blamed for something that wasn't their fault.

Why Do People Gaslight?
There are many reasons why people resort to gaslighting, but most of them boil down to a desire for power and control. People who gaslight may be insecure, jealous, or envious of their target's strengths, talents, or achievements. They may also feel threatened, guilty, or ashamed of their own behavior and try to deflect the blame onto their target. This behavior may also be due to distorted worldviews, where lies and deception are part of their reality, and everyone else is gullible or naïve.  READ MORE...

Funny Signs

 

I'm All For ABORTION

Whether you want to have an abortion or not is YOUR DECISION and is none of my business and never should be any of my business...  UNTIL...  you ask our federal government to pay for it...  This is when I will stand up against you.  My government...  our government...  has no right to pay for your abortion.  They did not pay for you to have sex and they did not pay for your IUD or condoms...  Those are YOUR DECISIONS and YOURS ALONE.

My tax dollars pay for government and pay for this country's defenses against its enemies...   that's is...  The government should keep its nose out of the rest of our business including:

• Unemployment
• Social Security
• Medicare
• Public Education
• Public Transportation
• Public Parks and Recreation

Personally, I like idea of ABORTION because it keeps many of the undesirables off the streets once they become teenagers.  If someone wants an abortion (outside of being raped) then they have no business being a parent and would probably be a terrible parent.

Abortion also helps reduce crime because not wanting a child and having sex anyway, means that the likelihood of your child growing up to be a criminal is HIGH.

Those females who do not want an abortion will typically make good parents or a good single mother and the odds are in her favor that their child will not grow up to be a criminal.

There is nothing wrong with SEX.  I personally really enjoy it.  However, if you don't want to take precautions to keep from getting pregnant then you should have no problems at all getting an abortion.

I also believe that the STATES should not be able to tell you whether you should get an abortion or not.  If the states are for religious freedoms then not being religious is one of your freedoms and should be honored regardless.

Frittata

 

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox

In the most massive test to date, physicists have probed a major paradox in quantum mechanics and found it still holds even for clouds of hundreds of atoms.

Using two entangled Bose-Einstein condensates, each consisting of 700 atoms, a team of physicists co-led by Paolo Colciaghi and Yifan Li of the University of Basel in Switzerland has shown that the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox scales up.

The researchers say this has important implications for quantum metrology – the study of measuring things under quantum theory.

"Our results represent the first observation of the EPR paradox with spatially separated, massive many-particle systems," the researchers write in their paper.

"They show that the conflict between quantum mechanics and local realism does not disappear as the system size increases to more than a thousand massive particles."

Although we're pretty good at mathematically describing the Universe, our understanding of how things work is patchy at best.

One of the tools we use to close one of the gaps is quantum mechanics, a theory that arose in the early 20th century, championed by physicist Niels Bohr, for describing how atomic and subatomic matter behaves. In this tiny realm, classical physics breaks down; when the old rules no longer apply, new rules must be made.

But quantum mechanics isn't without its flaws, and in 1935, three famous physicists found a significant hole. Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen described the famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox.  READ MORE...

Bear Rescue

 

Ex Marine Indicted

 

Tractor Beams - No Longer SciFi

Rebel ships better watch out because, apparently, we’re closer to making tractor beams a reality than ever. Once relegated to the realm of fantasy in Star Wars and Star Trek, Phys.org is reporting that a team of aerospace engineers led by Professor Hanspeter Schaub is working on electron beams that use attractive or repulsive electrostatic force to remove space debris from orbit. Presumably, if the team finds success in creating these beams, we could prevent Kessler Syndrome from becoming a reality.

Kessler Syndrome is a phenomenon, laid out by NASA scientist Donald Kessler, where the space debris in Earth’s orbit becomes so significant that it hinders our ability to launch satellites, spacecraft, orbital stations, and anything else into orbit. It’s a major problem that could easily become the state of our orbit if measures aren’t taken to prevent it. Using so-called “space dump trucks” with tractor beams could be one way to lessen our debris problem.

The main problem with space debris is that it’s not so easy to clear out, as objects in space move rapidly and unpredictably, so you can’t just grab it like you would grab trash out of the ocean. Tractor beams would allow us to move debris and other objects out of the way without having to touch them directly. Another example of the usefulness of these beams would be moving old satellites out of the way to make room for new satellites.

Of course, there is still a lot of work today before these tractor beams can be applied in real-world scenarios. To test the technology, the team uses a vacuum chamber called the Electrostatic Charging Laboratory for Interactions between Plasma and Spacecraft. The vacuum chamber can simulate a space environment, and the team can place simulated debris made out of metal to experiment with the electrostatic tractors.  READ MORE...

Candles in the Wind

 

The Marriage License

I have been married twice, divorced once and have children from my first marriage.  My divorce resulted in 2/3 of everything going to my ex-wife, even 10 acres of land that was in my name, paid for my me, and was mine before we got married.  Divorce left a bitter taste in my mouth for both marriage and women.  My daughter sided with my ex-wife on everything and because I got remarried (as did her mother), she had decided not to have anything to do with me for the last 6-7 years...  which is her loss as well as mine.

But, what of marriage?

What's the point of getting married, outside of some religious belief that one should not engage in sex until one gets legally married?

I don't think there is a point...

While I did get married a second time, there was absolutely no reason to get married except to give the female financial security that she did not have simply living with me.

Not that I will have another chance but if I did, I would not get married.  I would keep my own checking and savings account.  All expenses would be shared based upon one's contribution to the overall finances.

For example, if I contributed $2,000 a month and she contributed $1,000 a month and our expenses were $4,000 a month, the I would pay 2/3 and she would pay 1/3 of $4,000.  My share would be $2,640 and her share would be $1,360.

Any purchase of a house would be done the same way and when it sold, I would receive 2/3 and she would receive 1/3.  If there was a parting of the ways, then she would take her assets and I would take mine...

Marriage is overrated and more often than not, marriage is simply a financial arrangement between two people that see themselves as either partners or roommates...   NOTHING MORE...

For Future Generations

 

White Dwarf Star

To us, stars may resemble cut jewels, glittering coldly against the velvet darkness of the night sky. And for some of them, that may actually be sort of true.

As a certain type of dead star cools, it gradually hardens and crystallizes. Astronomers have found one doing just that in our cosmic backyard, a white dwarf composed primarily of carbon and metallic oxygen just 104 light-years away, whose temperature-mass profile suggests that the center of the star is transforming into a dense, hard, 'cosmic diamond' made up of crystallized carbon and oxygen.

The discovery is detailed in a paper accepted into the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and available on preprint website arXiv.

"In this work we present the discovery of a new Sirius-like quadruple system at 32 parsecs distance, composed of a crystallizing white dwarf companion to the previously known triple HD 190412," write an international team of astronomers led by Alexander Venner of the University of Southern Queensland in Australia.

"By virtue of its association with these main sequence companions, this is the first crystallizing white dwarf whose total age can be externally constrained, a fact that we make use of by attempting to empirically measure a cooling delay caused by core crystallization in the white dwarf."

All things in the Universe must change. Every star that hangs in the firmament, shining brightly with the light generated by atomic fusion, will one day run out of fuel for their fires and evolve into something new.

For the vast majority of stars – those below about eight times the mass of the Sun, and including the Sun – that something is a white dwarf star.

When the fuel runs out, the star's outer material is shucked into the surrounding space, and the remaining core, no longer supported by the outward pressure supplied by fusion, will collapse down into an ultradense object, around the size of Earth (or the Moon!), but packing in as much mass as 1.4 Suns.  READ MORE...

Avoids Censorship

 

Cooking Biscuits

 

Species Buries Dead Before Humans 100,000 Year Ago

A reproduction of the skull of a Homo naledi named Leti, found inside the Rising Star Cave System at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Maropeng, South Africa.   Wikus de Wet/AFP via Getty Images

An extinct species called Homo naledi buried their dead 100,000 years before humans.

These actions were previously thought to be associated with larger-brained species.

The findings challenge previous assumptions about the progress of human evolution.

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Researchers have found that an extinct human species buried their dead and carved symbols on cave walls 100,000 years before humans, challenging previous assumptions about human evolution.

The species, called Homo naledi, had brains about one-third the size of a modern human's, according to CNN.      

Until now, these behaviors had only been associated with larger-brained species such as Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

The research is laid out in three studies accepted for publication in the journal eLife, CNN said.       READ MORE...

An Opening Rose

 

Saving Money

When I was lad growing up, I earned money by babysitting, mowing lawns, and selling vegetables that I grew in the back yard.  My parents encouraged this behavior only if I agreed to save half of whatever I earned.  The other half I could spend as I wanted.

I mowed 2-3 lawns a day in the summer of neighbors in our community and earned about $2/lawn after buying gasoline.  That worked out to about $40/week or $20 after half was saved.  That worked out to about $300 that I could spend each summer that I did this.

With my money, I purchased a set of weights, a TV, and a motorbike that I purchased in Italy on our way to Egypt.

All the money that was mine to spend, I kept with me in an envelope, but I do not remember ever being given the money I saved.  It would have been less than $1,000.

The point here is that I was TAUGHT TO SAVE MONEY...

Currently, my wife and I are saving $30,000/year from our retirement incomes that also includes a Trust Fund that will be depleted of money in 5 years or less.  From that point on, we will take money out of savings.  I would not be able to live like I do unless I had saved money.

During my 45 year career, I very seldom ate lunch at a restaurant.  I always brought my lunch.  I never purchased brand new cars, always purchased year old leased cars and saved thousands.  When on vacation, we would eat out once or twice, the rest of the time, we cooked our meals.  I never wasted money on lots of clothes, shoes, jackets, sweaters, or on the latest fashion.

At the age of 40, I stopped spending money on cigarettes and alcohol and by the age of 50, I was DEBT FREE...

I only purchased what I absolutely needed and did not care what the neighbors had and was never motivated by GREED.  I have enjoyed myself and lived an above average lifestyle all my life which for me and my wife, was all we ever wanted or needed.